The New York Times · New York, New York · 11 September 1948

CP-1948-154

STERN GROUP KILLS 10 ARABS IN VILLAGE

Reports Say Detachment Had No Losses in Battle Three Miles From Jerusalem

By Julian Louis Meltzer

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM, Sept. 10—Ten armed Arabs were killed early this morning when a detachment from the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel (Stern Group) “prevented a serious breach of the truce” in an Arab village named Beit Iksa, three miles northwest of Jerusalem, according to a statement apparently passed by the Israeli military censorship.

Banner headlines in the Stern Group’s newspaper Mivrak stated: “Fighters for Freedom routed armed Arabs plotting the capture of Beit Iksa.”

One leader of the group stated that it did not regard the present position as a truce because of the continuance of Arab aggression. [Gerhardt Perl, publisher, and Eliyahu Amikam, editor of Mivrak, were arrested Friday on charges of violating Israeli military censorship, The Associated Press reported. The newspaper submitted to censorship on Sept.

6 an article in which it advised the United Nations observers to leave Israel or be expelled. The censor forbade its publication but the paper carried the article the same day.] Reports stated that observation posts of the Fighters for Freedom spotted armed Arabs inside Beit Iksa, which is in the hilly No Man’s Land of the Judean mountains.

Entry into the village was prohibited under an agreement between Israel and the Arabs. A unit of the Fighters for Freedom went to the village at 11 o’clock last night, and at 4 A. M. today a battle developed with the Arabs. Ten of them were killed.

A large quantity of firearms and ammunition is said to have fallen into the hands of the Fighters for Freedom, who returned to their camp in Jerusalem without suffering any losses. Arab sharpshooters, holding strong points inside Beit Iksa, have harassed Israeli traffic on the main highway to and from Jerusalem ever since the Palestine conflict began last December.

Political circles here believe it is the intention of the Fighters for Freedom to precipitate large-scale Arab hostilites that would have the effect of terminating the United Nations truce and of compelling Israel authorities to embark on retaliatory warfare.

Unlike Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Fighters for Freedom have not reached agreement with the Military Governor of Jerusalem to accept the authority and discipline of the Israeli administrators. They retain complete liberty of action against the Arabs. Maintenance of the truce, the group holds, is unsatisfactory to Israel’s vital interest as a sovereign state.

Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Shertok told the Provisional Government Council in Tel Aviv last night that a large part of his talk yesterday with Count Folke Bernadotte, United Nations Mediator for Palestine, concerned allegedly constant Arab cease-fire breaches.

The widespread belief among the Israeli populace is that it would be preferable to resume hostilities with the certainty of complete, speedy victory and a clearcut decision that the indefinite, patchy truce does not offer. Moreover, it is felt generally that observance of the truce is proving more costly than actual fighting. Dr.

Israel Scheib, political leader of the Stern Group, said: “We shall enter any Arab territory we can because we do not recognize the present conditions as a truce situation. The war which the Arab League thrust upon us must be prosecuted until the whole land of Israel is liberated for its Jewish people.”

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